Stupid Question

[NathanRomano]

Isn't the point of a widescreen TV that it will fill the screen? And not have the black bars? Or is there different Aspect Ratios? This is a stupid question, but I don't know much about this kind of stuff

[Cronos]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_Aspect_Ratio

1.78 will completely fill the screen, 1.33, 1.66, 1.85, 2.35 etc will have a bar of some size on screen either at the top/bottom or sides.

Was bored so quickly made this of the "main" ws aspect ratios as I couldn't find a decent example showing how much of a ws TV image they would fill:

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/847/mehwd0.jpg

[SkyNet]

haha.. dude that aint a stupid question at all! Because i guaran-damn-tee you that, that is a question many people had!

Most filmmakers don't shoot in 1:78 do they??

It is mostly 2:35 or 1:85.. i think thats right at least!

[Cronos]

Most filmmakers don't shoot in 1:78 do they??
I think it's mainly things like TV shows/documentaries etc that are specifically shot in 1.78. I think some companies do reformat movies filmed in 1.85 to 1.78 for their DVD releases though so it completely fills the screen.